It's Like Magic!

Last week, a service technician from a local heating company came to my house to look at our twelve year old heat pump and furnace. The heat pump was running most of the time and making a strange sound, as though it were trying to start up but kept quitting, instead. Anyway, my wife and I wanted the serviceman to look at our system and repair anything that wasn't working correctly.

The serviceman listened to the sounds coming from the heat pump and told us that it indicated that the heat pump was no longer functioning, it had burned out, so to speak and would probably have to be replaced. He also said that the heat pumps being installed about 12 years ago used a type of refrigerant that is no longer made, so it would probably not be repairable. He wanted to look at the system, though, to see whether the furnace would also have to be replaced since it worked together with the old heat pump. His estimate for all that was $8,000 - $10,000 to replace the heating system.

When he went outside to check the heat pump, I did a Matrix Energetics exercise in which I entered a reality in which the heat pump just had some simple, fixable problem that he could repair and that the heating system was otherwise sound.

Guess what! The serviceman came back into the house and told us that a wire had burned out so he would replace the wire to see how the heat pump would perform with the current flowing properly. It worked perfectly and the heating system works very well. The cost of the servicing of the furnace and the heat pump was $220 and our heating system should work fine for a good while.

I continue to be astounded by the results of doing these simple Matrix exercises in which I let the universe know my preferences for reality. I always hoped the universe was listening to my preferences but I never imagined that my reality was so fluid and responsive to them. It's like magic!

Knowing God

I've been reading Carl Jung's Answer to Job with a group of people while simultaneously reading Edward Edinger's commentary on Jung's Answer to Job. The most recent sections that I read in Jung's book have to do with God's answer to the question raised in the book of Job, which was how can God be moral or conscious if God treats just, good and obedient men like Job so harshly while sometimes rewarding people who are selfish and don't follow God's commandments at all. The answer has to do with God transforming from imperial, unconscious and all-powerful deity into human form, the image of the incarnation of God.

It came to me this morning that the image of the incarnation of God suggests that God is now to be found within human consciousness, the humanization of God. The Catholic Church teaches people to worship the incarnated God and experience God through the Holy Spirit. The institutional Church, however, is uncomfortable with the notion of its members actually experiencing the Holy Spirit for themselves, afraid perhaps of the anarchy or chaos it images would ensue. The Church therefore teaches that the Holy Spirit communicates through the Pope, the hierarchy and the religious in the Church rather than individuals, although it does make concession for the mystics and honors them with sainthood after they've died.

In other words, Jung is saying that for people in the modern world, God is to be found within human consciousness because the God archetype has transformed into a human form. I read this book over 40 years ago and certainly would have read this section. I remember being excited by the notion that God is alive as an archetype in consciousness. I don't know how deeply I was aware that he was saying that God is located within my consciousness.

It's exciting, none the less, to realize that no less an authority than Carl Jung confirms the teachings of Hinduism, Buddhism, Kabbalah and mystical Christianity.

Rain Blessings

Rain has returned to the Olympic Peninsula, so it rained through the night last night. It didn't rain hard, though. The rain fell like a light mist during the night and I could only hear it landing on the roof when I walked under one of the skylights in my house. I used to refer to rain like this as drizzle growing up in northeast Ohio where the rain fell much harder, creating puddles and runoff everywhere. The rain doesn't penetrate the ground as well when it falls so hard, the ground gets saturated quickly so the water that falls stays on the surface and runs down whatever inclines there are toward lower ground. In Ohio, water often ran down the sides of the streets toward the sewers and drains located at low spots on the pavements or streets. Water ran off the lawns and out of the woods as well, creating streams, brooks and small lakes everywhere. It rained faster than the ground could absorb water.

Here, in the Northwest, the rain falls so gently that it's absorbed right away. When I moved here, I thought I would need heavy duty rain gear to be able to go outside when it rains. As it turns out, though, I often go outside with just a jacket or sweatshirt when it's raining because the moisture falls in such small droplets. It's more like a mist than what I used to associate with rain. It's more like being out in a snowfall, where the flakes dust the clothing but don't make it very wet unless I remain outside in the snow for too long. It's the same with the rain, here. It's usually gentle, soft and caressing, like having very moist air surrounding me.

It does rain hard occasionally and then I do need to cover myself with rain gear and waterproof shoes. This seldom happens, though, and I find myself surprised again and again by the lightness of the rain.

So, when the showers necessary for life come to the area, I experience them as bringing a blessing of moisture and nurturing me and everything else here with life-giving watery abundance.

Soul Talk: Coming Alive

This universe, the world and all the life that surrounds you is for you. How would you like to engage and interact with life? What do you enjoy doing? Is there something you'd like to learn or contribute while you're alive? Is there something you'd like to do?

These questions represent an interesting approach to being alive. Notice that they are not commandments or even suggestions. They are questions that only you can answer for yourself. And you can change your answers as often as you like. Some activities that bring pleasure to you for a while become boring or dull through repetition. You are not forced to continue doing something that is not interesting or enjoyable. That's the whole point of being alive, becoming more aware of yourself and bringing more of yourself into consciousness.

You were raised in a particular hierarchical reality that gave you an experience of being separate and limited. You did not enjoy that experience and became determined to find or invent a way of being that was more nourishing and enjoyable. And you're still discovering ways in which you are controlled or limited by the low expectations implanted in you by your family, religion and culture when you were a child. Expectation is a powerful force in consciousness and each time you expand yours, you allow your unlimited essential being to become ever more present.

You are coming alive with life, being and fullness.

Simple And Not Easy

I still have this moment in which to create and express. It seems simple enough, although I often slip into some other place where I lose sight of what I want. My morning meditations are a useful analogy for my experiences with being present in the moment. In meditation, I simply presence myself and focus on being aware. I often think about things, instead, remembering things that happened, going over the experiences of characters in stories that I've read or movies that I've watched, planning events, trying to remember the lyrics to a song, imagining what my son or daughter is experiencing, etc. You get the idea.

Even though the purpose and practice of meditation is simple, it's not easy to actually focus and be present in this moment because I slip into thinking about things. It's like that the rest of the day, too, in terms of being present in each moment and reacting, responding and creatively engaging with what is. It's simple enough to describe that I want to be present and creative and not so easy to accomplish. At least, that's the way I've experienced it so far. I feel like I've shifted gears, though, and see this opportunity in a new way. I understand this process very well from my experiences in meditation and attempting to bring my consciousness into the present for some years, now. I am more conscious and aware than ever, which has brought me into a new experience of meditation, where I can quiet my mind and be present for a while. I am beginning to see a similar shift in my experience of being present in each moment during the day, being myself engaging with what is.

I am more present than ever, so I expect my experience will change, too.

Rain In My World

I like the rain. When I awoke this morning I could hear rain falling on the roof and skylights. I felt happy at the sound and nourished by the moisture and the rain.

I am surprised at my response to the rain. I moved to Port Townsend from Santa Fe. I wasn't sure how I'd respond to all the clouds and rain here after all that time in the desert. I was concerned I would miss the sunlight and feel limited by the darkness of cloudy rainy days. That has not been a concern at all since I came here. Instead, I feel like I haven't had my fill of rain and feel disappointed when a storm passes us by or the rain stops, like it did about an hour ago. I feel happy when it's rains and I love looking out over the water toward the islands across the sea to watch the mist play and dance while the rain or the mist fills the air in between.

I thought I might feel limited by the rain in terms of taking walks, going on hikes or generally doing things outdoors. Actually, the rainfall tends to be very gentle here, so being outside in the rain is like being in a mist. The only limitation I have felt from the rain is concerned with the fact that I haven't found a comfortable pair of waterproof walking/hiking shoes to keep my feet dry. I have rain coats of different weights, a great rain hat and I love being outside in the rain. All I need is to find comfortable, waterproof shoes and I'll be all set to enjoy the experience of the rain.

When I sat at the computer this morning to write, I checked the weather forecast for today to see what might be happening today now that the rain has stopped. I was pleased to see that the weather forecast projects a high probability for steady rain this afternoon and through the night. I'm delighted.

I love the rain.

A Magical Time In The Morning

I awakened this morning at 4:22 am, a little surprised that I slept later than usual. I went to bed early last evening and was asleep by about 9:30 pm, and I usually sleep for about 6 hours, so I figured that I must have been really tired. I went into the bathroom and washed my face to get ready for my meditation time. I cleaned myself, then went into the kitchen to get a drink of water. At least 7 or 8 minutes had passed since I got out of bed, so I was surprised to see the kitchen clock read 4:09 am. I was puzzled by the discrepancy in the times, then laughed at the apparent contradiction. I certainly could have read the clock in the bedroom incorrectly. It's also possible that the time changed so that I would have longer to meditate. I couldn't go back into the bedroom to check the clock in there because my wife was still sleeping, although I don't expect to find that clock twenty minutes fast. I've had that clock for over ten years and it runs like, well, clockwork. I just love physical reality conundrums like this because they keep me awake, so to speak, to the limitless possibilities available in this world. Who knows what happened with the apparent contradiction in my perception of time this morning!

I was reminded two days ago of an experience I had about a month ago. The computer wasn't working so I did a Matrix Energetics twinkle to allow the computer to return to normal functioning easily and simply. The computer started up with a blank screen and didn't respond to any prompts or entries on the keyboard. A technician with whom I spoke on the phone suggested that I had fried the hard drive by not paying attention to the instructions for a system software update and told me to bring it into the store. Instead, I did the Matrix with the intention that the problem be something simple that could be corrected immediately.

I then discovered that the Apple Care for this computer, which I was sure I had purchased over three years before, was still in effect. In fact, the Apple Care people told me that I had purchased it less than a year and a half previously!!!! They told me I had purchased the computer the previous year. My wife also was convinced that the Apple Care would have expired because we had the computer so long. How was that possible?

In any case, the Apple Care person proceeded to tell me to press a button and everything came back, the computer functions perfectly and all is well. How's that for conundrums!